Will this provide a noticeable difference?

Scenario: Shooting up close at an outdoor dance event, 2pm in the afternoon.
Goal: Some fill flash to help with shadows, be mobile as my son will be on my back.


Option 1 - 7D with a 580exII on top in ETTL - with either the bounce card pulled up, or a Pocket Bounce.

Option 2 - I just modified a bracket to push the flash out to the left a bunch of inches (poor photo here)


Will this make much of a difference in this kind of environment? I'm not thinking it will be a dramatic difference - and frankly, It's bulky as hell - I'm prepared to lug it around if it will make a big change.

Thoughts?

I'd do some test shots, but it's already dark out.

Depending how close you are to the subject, it may be best to have your flash without that 80/20 modifier thing when you are outside, but still on the bracket. That modifier works best inside imo, and unless you have a huge white area like 4-5 times bigger it isn't gonna make a difference. But having the flash off the axis of the lens is key, and also being high up puts bad shadows toward the ground instead of directly behind them, and having it at an angle creates some 3d lighting, vs straight on.

pcj wrote in post #10909528
Option 2 - I just modified a bracket to push the flash out to the left a bunch of inches (poor photo here)

I will admit that I have not tried using the flash in that position, but my first impression is that I would NOT want that setup.

Fill flash is just that. It's purpose is to simply add a bit of light to existing shadows on the subject to reduce contrast a bit. In my opinion, you do not want the flash to be creating shadows of its own - particularly when the shadows from the flash would be in different places from those made by the primary lighting. Shadows going in two different directions make the "fill flash" extremely obvious. The intent when using fill flash is to make its use NOT obvious in the images. Thus, I would want my fill flash source directly above the lens and just high enough to avoid creating red-eye when photographing subjects that have eyes.

SkipD wrote in post #10925936
I will admit that I have not tried using the flash in that position, but my first impression is that I would NOT want that setup.

Fill flash is just that. It's purpose is to simply add a bit of light to existing shadows on the subject to reduce contrast a bit. In my opinion, you do not want the flash to be creating shadows of its own - particularly when the shadows from the flash would be in different places from those made by the primary lighting. Shadows going in two different directions make the "fill flash" extremely obvious. The intent when using fill flash is to make its use NOT obvious in the images. Thus, I would want my fill flash source directly above the lens and just high enough to avoid creating red-eye when photographing subjects that have eyes.

The limited testing I did with it showed just this - the shadows just looked odd and out of place. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained - I'll be shooting witgh the flash in the hotshoe of the camera, and either a bounce card or the pocket bounce

When I shoot outside dance events during the day/afternoon I just use flash in eTTL in camera hot shoe. Bracket would be nice but I found action to be fast and flipping bracket was taking too much time. So now I shoot most horizontal and just crop if I needed a vertical.